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October 12, 2011October 17, 2011

UI – Part 121 – Hanging For Apostasy

Hanging for Apostasy

Is this how Islam makes known the statement, “There is no compulsion in Religion.” To hang one who converted from Islam to Christianity, now for the crime of not converting back too, apostasy in its ultimate mode of punishment to a Muslim. Choose, free-will applied, another faith and death is the order of the day. Yes, there is ‘no compulsion in religion’ as long as the religion is Islam. What a fear tactic. How many are living under the umbrella of the ideology of Islam wanting to find or take another path, yet not doing so out of fear. How many fear Allah and the army of Islamists that do the bidding of the Quran. Those, the punishers, they act more, in my opinion, for their sake in a self-righteous posture, than for their love of Allah alone. In fact their love of Allah is questionable. Do they enjoy the role as executioner? Do they enjoy the role as judge in the name of Allah?

Sinners Also

The Muslim world is filled with women in hijab and men bowing for daily prayer that pray to God to be freed of the oppression of an ideology that does not allow freedom of choice. They have free-will, but because they are weak, they cannot remain pure. Born without sin, yet weak. Incongruent in my mind because they are sinners, as all mankind is, yet they say birth of a Muslim is without original sin. They are just weak. Aren‘t we all?

How many who judge using the Quran in their own lives wallow in the pleasures of sin?

Fear – The Tactical Tool of Islam

The fear of leaving the ideology of Islam – is it a result of indoctrination, possibly brainwashing, fear of retribution or rejection? Have they no backbone? I know, it is difficult when death by a firing squad may be the result. How Allah has deceived and scared so many into remaining in the fold. Only the acceptance of Allah is to be considered. No doubts are permitted. This is not acceptable and in America it should be seen for what it is. Knowing that Islamic Law, Sharia Law, condones such actions is enough to do all possible to exclude Sharia Law from any court or matter to be resolved with civility. It is not structured for the common good. Keep it far from the shores of this great Nation – America. Islam does not accept freedom of religion. Freedom in general is anathema to Islam. God would not permit this. But Allah?

Yusef Nadarkhani

We must praise Yusef Nadarkhani. He is willing to stand-up for what HE believes. Are you? He may even become a martyr for his belief in Jesus. He no longer believes or accepts Allah. We need to pray he will be set-free. But will others?

In UI – Part 111, on the subject of Polygamy (posted at http://www.understand-islam.com/), a woman spoke with her local ulema, an Islamic scholar, expressing her doubts. Addressing her concerns as to Polygamy, her discomfort, the scholar side-stepped her major question and personal concern responding with, “Do you believe Allah is Just?” Is that a loaded question or what? How else could an Islamic woman answer but, “Yes.” The doubts were to remain. The scholars say doubt, questions, are unnecessary. Allah has revealed everything. It is in the Quran. Take it; accept it. But if don’t take it, you leave it, you die. Beware! Be scared!

Yusef Nadarkhani has been in jail since October 2009. He converted from Islam to Christianity and became a Christian Pastor. It has been reported that “The 33-year-old Nadarkhani converted to Christianity from Islam in 1997, when he was 19. He was arrested in 2009, when he was serving as the pastor of a small church in the northern city of Rasht. A court sentenced him to hanging after convicting him of apostasy.”

Islamic Law in Iran says a Muslim who converts to another faith can face the death penalty. Iran is mostly Shite, and differs from the majority Sunni Muslim population in a few ways, to include the selection for the highest Ulema (scholars), whether they are in the family of Muhammad or chosen for their knowledge and leadership in Islam, but not in their consideration of the application of Islamic Law. The Saudi nation is Wahabbist, a more extreme form of Sunni, where Islamic Law is strictly enforced, more so than in most other Muslim concentrated and autocratically ruled areas.

His wife was also imprisoned at one point, now free. Free but under, to be sure, the watchful eye of the Islamist police.

His sentence to death can be overturned if he repents and becomes a Muslim again. Now that is keeping the faith; but it is not having faith. On many occasion he was confronted with this option to avoid the death sentence. He has not converted back, and would die for his faith and belief in Jesus Christ. What a strong believer in the Risen Lord.

In an appeal to the Islamic Court Naderkhani’s lawyer, Dadkhah, argued, “… at the time of Prophet Mohammad no one was killed for being an apostate. The history of Islam shows that at the time of the Prophet three tribes became apostate but the Prophet didn’t [order] them to be killed. There’s nothing about killing apostates in the Koran.” It was not sufficient, as yet anyway, to gain his release.

The Moderates Have Not been Heard From

On Twitter many have called for a halt to this travesty. Yet I have not read a word from the Muslim community, even from moderates I know are out there. I welcome being enlightened by those Muslims fighting for the release of this convert, and renouncing the practice in Islam to kill an apostate. They need to also call for a halt throughout the Muslim world to not accepting other religions. Allow free-will to enable those who believe not in Islam to worship as they please. Build and open church doors in Muslim areas of the world. Let me hear your voice.

Whitehouse Statement

The Whitehouse made a statement, “That the Iranian authorities would try to force [Nadarkhani] to renounce [his] faith violates the religious values they claim to defend, crosses all bounds of decency, and breaches Iran’s own international obligations…. A decision to impose the death penalty would further demonstrate the Iranian authorities’ utter disregard for religious freedom, and highlight Iran’s continuing violation of the universal rights of its citizens.”

Trying to find a means to ensure the death sentence was imposed, the case for apostasy, the court worked hard to justify the sentence even saying Nadarkhani was guilty of apostasy because he has Muslim ancestry. Now even if not a Muslim today, but you parents were Muslims, beware, the Islamists are out to kill you and have you convert back to Islam. The choice is yours, but the death sentence is theirs.

Who is the Judge?

In my faith God punishes. Especially as to matters of faith. He is judge, and that judgment will occur not in this world but in his world, not by man acting as God, but by God alone. Islam, as demonstrated by this case, is not Godlike in its standards of Law. Christ freed all mankind from the Laws, and if man chooses to then enact Laws as he so determines, then he commits a crime against the most holy.

Mehdi Hasan of the Guardian – UK, wrote in an opinion piece (This brutality is not Islam) on September 30, 2011, “There is a misguided assumption among many Muslims that such an abhorrent punishment is divinely mandated. It isn’t. Classical Muslim jurists wrongly conflated apostasy with treason. The historical fact is that the prophet Muhammad never had anyone executed for apostasy alone. In one well-documented case, when a Bedouin man disowned his decision to convert to Islam and left the city of Medina, the prophet took no action against him, remarking only that, “Medina is like a pair of bellows: it expels its impurities and brightens and clears its good”.

Nor does the Qur’an say that a Muslim who apostasies be given any penalty. Freedom of religion is guaranteed by Islam’s holy book in the famous verse: “Let there be no compulsion in religion” (2:256). Apostasy is deemed a sin, but the Qur’an repeatedly refers to punishment in the next world, not this one. Take the 137th verse of chapter 4: “Those who believe then disbelieve, again believe and again disbelieve, then increase in disbelief, God will never forgive them nor guide them to the Way” (4:137). This verse, which explicitly allows for disbelief, followed by belief, followed once again by disbelief, suggests any punishment is for God to deliver – not judges in Iran, Saudi Arabia or anywhere else.”

Pray for the release of Nadarkhani. May God have mercy on him. May salvation be his as a believer in Christ, justified by his faith, sustained by the Spirit of God within, and assured of an eternal life in the Kingdom. May the evil in the hearts of those in Iran that have judged this human so wrongly be cleansed with sanity, human compassion, and love. The Khomeini and Ahmadinejad are as much at fault for such a serious breach of the rights of all humans. If this execution is carried out their souls will be blackened by the evil that has been exposed. May the Love of God prevail.

The misfortune that has befallen this man is not of his own doing. The Quran is wrong in Sura 4:79 when it says ‘whatever good befalls thee, it is from Allah, and whatever misfortune befalls thee, it is from thyself.’ That is not God speaking. God loves this man, and all humans, unconditionally.